Research News and Events
WSJ Focuses on Wheaton, Who Suggests Fears of Housing Slump May Be Seriously Overdone
March 24, 2008
The Wall Street Journal spotlighted analysis by MIT/CRE Professor Bill Wheaton, who offered a brighter view of market conditons than the gloomy one now in vogue. The Journal noted Wheaton's sucessful record of independent thinking, reminding readers that "Mr. Wheaton is no perma-bull. Quite the reverse: he was warning about the coming real estate crash back when the usual hallejulah chorus were singing and clapping their hands." Download article (pdf, 23K) or visit WSJ online.
Boston Herald Cites MIT/CRE Indexes as "Commercial Real Estate Prices Tank"
February 6, 2008
"Commercial real estate prices are tumbling across the country in a decline not seen since the devastating recesson of the early 1990s, a new MIT report finds. The value of commercial real estate owned by major U.S. pension funds fell 5 percent in the fourth quarter, according to a commercial market index produced by the MIT Center for Real Estate. The drop was nearly twice the 2.5 percent decline seen in the third quarter." Read full article.
CNBC References Center Indexes: " Commercial Property Woes Hit Pension Funds"
February 5, 2008
"The value of U.S. commercial real estate owned by big pension funds fell five percent in the fourth quarter of 2007, twice the drop of the third quarter, according to an index from the MIT Center for Real Estate. The transaction-based index (TBI) tracks the price at which big pension funds buy and sell commercial properties, which include shopping malls, apartment complexes and office buildings. The cumulative fall since last year’s midsummer peak is now more than 7 percent." Read full article.
Economist's View: Geltner Quoted on Further Decline of Commercial Property Prices
February 5, 2008
"The value of U.S. commercial real estate owned by big pension funds fell another 5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007, according to an index produced by the MIT Center for Real Estate.... 'This is evidence that the commercial property market continued to fall, and at an accelerated rate, through the last quarter of 2007, no doubt due to the effects of the credit crunch,' said MIT Center for Real Estate Director David Geltner." Read full article.
Transportation Becomes Architecture in MIT's City Car
posted December 7, 2007
If you own a car and live or work in a major city, you've doubtless had the experience of circling block after block looking for a place to park. How much time and gas did you waste before your "parking angel" finally came through? William J. Mitchell has wondered as well. In a guest lecture at MIT/CRE, the Director of the Design Laboratory at MIT's Media Lab presented his team's City Car, a revolutionary concept vehicle that could dramatically raise urban transportation's efficiency and lower its environmental impact. Read more.
MIT - Cambridge - Maastricht Conference 2007
October 12-14, 2007
This annual real estate symposium — hosted this year by MIT/CRE — featured breaking research on real options, Asian real estate, & much more. In a talk about engineering systems applications to real estate, researchers from MIT's Engineering Systems Division showed how developers could save significant time and resources by designing buildings for flexibility. Read article.
Wheaton & Torto Win Prestigious Graaskamp Award
September 26, 2007
The Pension Real Estate Association (PREA) as announced that MIT/CRE Professor William Wheaton and his business partner Raymond Torto have been awarded the 2007 PREA Graaskamp Award. Granted every other year, the award is among the most prestigious in the real estate investment industry, recognizing those "who contribute to the common body of knowledge some practical insights gained through significant research." The award is named in memory of the late researcher Dr. James A. Graaskamp, a distinguished professor of real estate at the University of Wisconsin, "a champion of research of immediate use to investment decision makers." The award winners will designate MIT/CRE as the recipient of the award's $10,000 scholarship.
Center Releases Landmark Study on 40B & Litigation
June 18, 2007
MIT/CRE's Housing Affordability Initiative today released the findings of its exhaustive investigation into the Chapter 40B permitting process. Results are surprising, and include evidence that even though a majority of Chapter 40B zoning override cases in the Boston area are approved by town zoning boards in a manner acceptable to developers, many projects are not being built. Read press release. Read full report.
Fisher, Pollakowski, and Zabel Win Best Paper Award
May 10, 2007
MIT/CRE's Professor Lynn Fisher and Research Associate Henry Pollakowski, along with Tufts Professor of Economics Jeffrey Zabel, just received word that they won Best Paper Award for their offering at the 11th Asian Real Estate Society (AsRES) annual conference in Vancouver, June/July 2006. Sponsored by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the award will be shared by the researchers for their paper "Job Accessibility-Based Housing Affordability Indexes."
Commercial Property Transactions-Based Index Results
January 30, 2007
Finalization of calendar year 2006 results shows another very strong year for private institutional real estate investment performance, with the all-property total return for CY 2006 at 18.5%, including 14.5% price gain. While less than 2005's historical 22-year record high of almost 34%, this still represents an impressive investment performance well above the long-run average. The office sector led with a 21% total return including 18% price growth. Learn more.
Index Developed by MIT/CRE and RCA Leads Surge of New Indices
January 19, 2007
The groundbreaking real estate indices jointly launched by MIT/CRE and Real Capital Analytics (RCA) are among a number of indices just released, as reported in Institutional Investor's Real Estate Finance & Investment. Until recently, only a few commercial real estate indices existed, but the past year has seen the launch of numerous new indices, largely to spur the growth of derivative trades on commercial real estate.
MIT/CRE Professor William Wheaton Presents "A Housing 'Correction' or a Housing 'Recession'?"
January 2007
As a part of MIT's January IAP session, Professor Wheaton is presenting a talk on the current housing market in terms of historic housing prices and their relation to income, cycles caused by a contracting economy, true housing corrections, and other related topics.
MIT/CRE and Real Capital Analytics (RCA) Announce Pioneering Tradable Commercial Property Index
December 20, 2006
The latest results of the RCA-based commercial property index provide solid, quantitative evidence of the magnitude of the 2003-2005 commercial investment property bull market in the U.S., and indicate that the "boom" period ended early in 2006 for the broader market. Read the MIT-RCA press release.
Graduate Theses Break New Ground
September 29, 2006
New graduates of the MIT Center for Real Estate's MSRED program shared surprising results from their thesis research as a part of Graduation Weekend 2006. Arvind Pai showed that core real estate pricing violates stock market behavior -- but in a systematic way. Kristen Wang's work revealed innovative financing used by public housing authorities. John Harris Morrison showed that private local investors buy the smallest properties, but earn more doing it than do larger firms.
CREDL Creates New Investment Tools
September 29, 2006
The Commercial Real Estate Data Laboratory (CREDL) at the MIT Center for Real Estate has developed indexes that not only track market movements better than previous indexes, but also can be used to create powerful new investment tools— real estate derivatives. David Geltner, Director of MIT/CRE, discussed the new indexes at the Center's graduation weekend on September 29.
New Studies Shed Light on Housing Woes
Banker & Tradesman, March 6, 2006
After depending for years on anecdotal evidence to determine the reasons behind Massachusetts’ high housing costs and difficulties developing new affordable housing, new studies help housing and smart-growth groups to back up their stories with numbers.
MIT Economists to Unveil Index on U.S. Commercial Property
Wall Street Journal, February 22, 2006
"It's a major event for all of those people whose pension money is being invested," says Henry Pollakowski, the principal research associate at MIT's Center for Real Estate and co-director of this research initiative. "It's clearly the case we know from history that this can't be sustained."
New MIT Index Measures Huge Returns in Commercial Real Estate
February 22, 2006
Annual investment returns for U.S. holdings in commercial real estate — a sector favored by big pension funds — hit an unprecedented high of 34 percent in 2005, according to the MIT Center for Real Estate. These results were announced with the launch of MIT/CRE's Transactions-Based Index (TBI).
Boston Area Housing Approaches an Acre per Home
January 31, 2006
New single-family home construction in the greater Boston metropolitan area is consuming about twice as much land as existing single-family housing, and half of the region’s 30,387 recent new single-family homes were built on lots of nearly an acre or larger, according to a new study by the Massachusetts Housing Partnership (MHP) and the MIT Center for Real Estate.
New Homes Now Using More Land
Banker & Tradesman, January 30, 2006
Newly constructed homes in Greater Boston are taking up more land, with half of the region’s new single-family houses built on nearly an acre of land or more, according to a recent study.
Understanding Affordability: New Initiative Tackles High Cost of Homes
Technology Review, October 2005
Housing affordability is a complex issue. States and communities cannot develop appropriate housing policies without understanding just what affordability means. Through its new Housing Affordability Initiative (HAI), the MIT Center for Real Estate is helping the housing industry to do that.
Index Spots Rental Housing Weak Points
Banker and Tradesman, May 30, 2005
Winchester, Hopkinton, Norwell, and Sudbury have one thing in common: all four communities are among more than two-dozen Greater Boston municipalities that could use more affordable rental housing, according to a newly developed index.
